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Who was that furry lawyer in the back of ‘Shutter’ #1?

If you bought Shutter #1 this week by Joe Keatinge and Leila del Duca — and you should, if you haven’t yet — then you probably noticed the return of a certain orange-and-black-stripped attorney — Tiger Lawyer!

Created by Ryan Ferrier, Tiger Lawyer has starred in a couple of self-published comics and also ran as a back-up in a previous Joe Keatinge comic, Hell Yeah. Ferrier created the character with the idea that he could use him all sorts of different situations and genres, and work with a variety of artists.

“To me, the whole point of Tiger Lawyer is experimenting, be it with different genres, styles and tones, but also with other creators,” Ferrier told me in 2012. “I had never written a noir story, and really wanted to, nor had I written a straight-up comedy, and Tiger is really this neutral element that can flow through both.”

I asked Ferrier about his plans for the back-up strips running in Shutter. The first issue featured a humorous strip drawn by Felipe Torrent, and he’s working on the next three.

“The next artist involved (for Shutter #2, I believe) is Rafer Roberts,” Ferrier told me. “I’m so into his art right now, he’s the brains behind Plastic Farm Press, and produces the stunning webcomic Nightmare the Rat. He also did the Thanos & Darkseid: Carpool Buddies of Doom mini comic with Justin Jordan, which was pretty popular. For the Shutter #3 strip, I’m teaming with Travis Sengaus (Big Hitters); we’re super pumped for that one, the entire comic is in Spanish. Shutter #4’s strip will be one that Michael Walsh and I cooked up a little while ago but hasn’t been seen. It’s kind of a ‘sequel’ to his page that was in Hell Yeah. If that strip was the prequel to Tiger, this would be the end of Tiger. It’s grim, silly fun, I think.”

He’s also working on the fourth issue of the self-published title, which he plans to release in late summer and will feature strips he’s doing with artists Vic Malhotra and Matt McCray.

“It’ll feature two new stories with series artists Vic Malhotra (we’re sharing story credit on his half) and Matt McCray,” Ferrier said. “Vic’s noir half is 23 pages, titled ‘Tiger Lawyer Lives,’ which flashes forward 10 years since the events of issue #3. It’s super fun, with kind of a Dark Knight Returns vibe. Matt’s comedy half is 13 pages, a total laugh riot titled ‘What’s Olde, Pussycat.’ It’s set during the Salem witch trials of 1692. We’re PUMPED.”

You can check out some of the inked pages from “Tiger Lawyer Lives” below.